2 Job Offers - And I Accept!

This has been a VERY EXCITING week for me as I have accepted a job at the Hess Corporation!!! I am so excited. :) Earlier this week I was offered the Marketing Director position at Carnegie East House, a beautiful nonprofit senior residential living place - but I decided to turn down that offer because I have ACCEPTED the Corporate Governance Administrator position at Hess, which is a Fortune 70 leading independent global energy/oil company. I have been temping at Hess and have always loved it here, especially the people. In my new position I will be working with the Executive Team, their Legal Department and the Board of Directors. I will report to the Corporate Secretary of the General Council. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to be a part of such a strong and successful company. I am going to learn so much. I will officially start on Oct 21st which works out perfectly so I don't have to take time off for my San Francisco Marathon on Oct. 19th. And I'll be temping here in Hess' IT Department until then anyways, so it works out perfect! I can't tell you what a great feeling it is to have a job offer - and with the company I have wanted to work for since I first interviewed to temp here. I just signed all the paperwork this morning - so it's official!

Seeing Old Friends!

This past week I was able to see some familiar faces - which is always fun. Last week I double-booked myself and had dinner with my high school and college friend, Kiersten, who has been living in NYC for 5 years now. She's a buyer for Saks and always has the best stories! She recently traveled to China for two weeks to see the Olympics in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan and some other cities...what an awesome trip! Anyways, Kiersten and I decided to meet for dinner after work on Wednesday night. We went to PJ Clarks which is apparently a hopping hangout for happy hour among the Midtown workers. It was packed! But we got a table right away and had a great time catching up. After dinner I had made plans to meet my college friend and 'lil sis in my sorority, Michelle, out for dessert at Pinkberry - which I had been wanted to try! Michelle was visiting New York for the first time with her mom and aunt and we had made plans for awhile to meet up while she was here. Pinkberry was perfect since neither of us had been there - and it was delicious. If you're not familiar with Pinkberry it's this cute frozen yogurt place with not a lot of varieties of yogurt but lots of fun toppings. And I guess lots of celebrities hang out there! Here's a photo of me and Michelle at Pinkberry.

And last Saturday I saw another old college friend, Courtney, who actually lives in Connecticut now, just a half-hour out of the city. Courtney was coming into Manhattan that day, so we decided to have brunch together. Philip came too. It was so great to catch up and hear how she is doing, etc. I'm trying to convince her to move into the city now too. After brunch we met up with Courtney and some of her work friends out at a sports bar - Brother Jimmy's. It was a great Saturday of brunch, shopping and hanging out at the sports bar! Courtney and I plan to hang out soon again! Here's a photo of me, Courtney's work friend, Courtney, and her friend Katie.

The Interesting Life of a Temp!

Oh - let me tell you...it has definitely been interesting being a temp! Within the last couple weeks I have been very busy - working pretty much every day. I had a very random assignment recently that I heard about through a friend who lives in Omaha and used to live in New York. Anyways, she forwarded me this information about how a PR firm in California needed a PR professional to help out with media for a one-day assignment in Albany, NY on September 11th. I was actually available that day and am a PR professional so I sent my resume and said I was available if they needed me. Well - they did and they flew me to Albany on Wednesday night (even though it's only 2 1/2 hours away) and I worked with the press during this New York State Task Force meeting on Flame Retardants! It was so crazy! But it was quite interesting and I learned a lot about flame retardants and the chemicals in them. I flew back home on Thursday night and was back temping at Hess on Friday & Monday.

I was also offered a temp assignment on Sunday from 9am - 5pm and even though I worked all week and was scheduled all next week - I took the assignment cause it never hurts to make money! So guess what I did all day for my job? I handed out balloons at a street parade for this Realty Company. They actually hired three of us to blow up and hand-out balloons. It was pretty funny. I really wish I had a photo for you of me handing out balloons. But hey - I guess it wasn't too bad for $12 an hour - but definitely random.

All last week I worked Armani Exchange helping them prep for a photo shoot - doesn't that sound exciting?! Well I thought so too - I was pretty excited about helping with a photo shoot. Well, the photo shoot is actually next week and I was literally "prepping" all the clothes for the shoot which meant tagging & labeling 7 racks of clothes! It took me all week to do it - way more work than you'd think. I guess it was still pretty cool and I do love the Armani Exchange clothes and now when I go to their website or in their stores - I can think that I helped in a small way. :)

For the next couple of weeks - I will be back at Hess for a short-term temp assignment. I'm excited to be booked for awhile and I love working at Hess. I'm actually interviewing there for permanent work as well. I've gone on a second & third-round interview for a position there and am waiting to schedule another interview - so that is always good. However, I have also been interviewing with Carnegie East House - a senior living residence non-profit for their Marketing Director position. Both sets of interviews have been going very well, but the jobs are completely different...so I'll be sure to let you know how all that comes out!

But for now - back to temping!

Hanging Out with the Kiewit Crew

Philip and I have been going out with his work friends a bunch lately. Since Philip mostly works with guys, it's always nice to hangout with some of the girls that work at Kiewit or some of the girlfriends. I have really gotten to know Andrea who is one of the girlfriend's. She dates Kyle who works at Kiewit and works on the same job as Philip. Andrea and Kyle both went to Purdue and so they are big Bears fans like Philip. So for their first game, Philip and I met up with Andrea and Kyle at the new watchsite bar for the Bears, the Overlook. It was great - we were outside and they had this screen on the side of the building to watch the game - and everyone was Bears fans. Andrea found the bar through this website called meetup.com where you can find about any hobby/interest/sport that you like and find a group that has organized something in NYC. It's great and you'd be amazed at how many types of groups there are - 1,000's! So anyways, the bar was great and so was the game! Bears beat the Colts at their new stadium. I'm now a Bears fan!

Philip and I also met up with Andrea and Kyle at the Ship of Fools last Friday. We were going to meet for happy hour, but we ended up extending the night when the rest of the Kiewit crew showed up to Ship of Fools and a couple other girls showed up too - Katie and Merideth. It was Merideth's birthday and she wanted to sing karaoke - which I was excited about since I love karaoke but hadn't been yet in NYC. So the whole group went to this karaoke bar called Reats on 45th & 2nd. It was perfect! I put a song in right away and ended up singing "Cruisin" with the bartender (since it's a duet). It was fun. Here's a photo of us girls that night. (Andrea & Meredith on left and Katie and me on right)

The following day one of Philip's Kiewit buddies, Nick, was having a Birthday/Housewarming Party at his apartment that he shares with two other Kiewit employees - Katie and Casey. They live on 108th & 5th Avenue. From the subway at night it was a little shady on our way to their place but they do look out to Central Park on 5th Avenue and they have very nice apartment. It was fun - there were lots of Kiewit friends there and we all decided to go to The Joshua Tree to end the night. I love the 80's music videos and dancing at the Joshua Tree...but I do think it's time we branch out a little bit and try a few more bars. So I will be encouraging new places next time we go out! But it was definitely still a fun night!

Go Huskers!

I finally had a chance to watch the Huskers play at the Nebraska football watch site - the Irish Rogue. I had missed the game the weekend before because Philip and his friends are from Iowa and don't really care about the Husker game...so this Saturday was my first game of the season to watch! I actually went a little early because I am involved with the Nebraska New York Society Board now (I just love volunteering!) and am on the planning committee for the Taste of Nebraska event which is now going to be held in the Spring on May 9th.

The bar was packed and it was so fun to see all of the Husker fans. I ran into one of my college friends Ben who I didn't know lived in New York City, so that is always fun. We cheered "Go Big Red" and everyone high-fived when the Huskers scored. It was a great time.

Oh and Philip is growing a mustache and I'm not excited about it! I hope this doesn't last too long - seriously. I do not know why guys think it is cool. Pray for me girls!

Labor Day

Since it was Labor Day weekend, Matt & Casey were still with us visiting on Monday and both Philip and I didn't have to work - so we slept in (a little later than we had wanted) and decided to show Matt & Casey Chinatown & Little Italy since we hadn't made it there on our long day of sight-seeing on Saturday and they had a busy day Sunday going to the Yankees Game.

I don't think any of us bought any purses or watches from Chinatown even though Casey was thinking about a Rolex watch. But we ended up having lunch in Little Itatly at one of the cute restaurants and sat outside. It was a beautiful day and a nice way to end our visit with Matt & Casey. Hopefully they had a great time!

The rest of that day Philip and I were exhausted from our long weekend and took a long nap! We won't be having visitors for awhile, which will be kind of nice.

Nike Human Race - wipe out!

Since the boys were going to the Yankees game on Sunday, I decided to run the Nike Human Race 10K on 8-31-08 - the largest running event in the world. This was the first year Nike has organized the Human Race and 26 cities across the world participated. There were 10,000 runners in NYC and I was one of them. Everyone wore the exact same shirt and our bib number was a part of the shirt - it was pretty cool. I went with my new running friend Joe who I met at the NYC Niketown Running Club.

So our race was located on Randall's Island, which is near 125th Street. I was pretty excited about the race...until I started running. We were on a path that was only a 3-mile loop and maybe 5 - 20 feet across throughout the race - with over 10,000 runners! The path was also very uneven with a lot of loose rock. The race was a 10K (6.1 miles) and I had a decent pace throughout the race but I was unable to really run full-out because it was so crowded and actually dangerous...which became very apparant on my last mile...when I completely wiped out. I must have slipped on some loose rock and fell face & hands forward. I really scraped up my knees and the palms of my hands. It really hurt and scared me. But I was still going to finish. I didn't really care about my time because it was impossible to pass people anyways and after I fell - I just wanted to be done.

Joe got some great photos of me getting First-Aid after the run - I'll be sure to add those when he sends those to me.

But the day wasn't all that bad, the expo (photo on right) at the beginning was fun with some tasty food samples from the sponsors and there was an amazing concert afterward by the All American Rejects. I was really impressed with the band and now am a big fan. So despite the horrible running path - the Nike Human Race was awesome. I just don't know if I'll run it ever again unless it switches to a new location. I just couldn't believe NYC chose such a horrible path with that many runners - all the other cities had wide open roads. It just doesn't make sense.

You can see my photos from the event by clicking here.

Here's a video of me before my run. This will only be availabe to view until October 16th.

A Saturday of Sightseeing...

On Saturday we wanted Matt & Casey to see all the sites of New York so we started our day showing the boys Times Square and the craziness of that area. Throughout our trip they were saying that NYC is a lot like Chicago, but I think Times Square is only something you can see in New York. It's such a zoo with so many people and you don't want to spend too much time there - but it's something you have to see...as well as the naked cowboy who sings and plays his guitar in his underwear! Check out the photo - we think it was a different guy though than the one made famous.

We continued our day by walking to Rockefeller Center where they broadcast the Today Show and they have the huge Christmas tree and skating rink in the winter. Here's a photo of Philip and me in front of the Rockefeller Center building - one of the tallest buildings in midtown.

Then Casey really wanted to go to the famous Carnegie Deli so we had to check it out. We didn't know what to expect or why it was so famous...but we soon found out. They serve the most ridiculous huge sandwiches! Philip and I split one and here's a photo of just my piece. Another table ordered the triple meat sandwich and the sandwich was 2-feet tall - no joke. It was hilarious. You have to eat it with a fork and they give you extra bread to eat it. It was definitely good and satisfying!

Then we decided to visit Ground Zero and the work of the new towers. One has been constructed and I believe there are four more towers to be built. It will be really neat when it is all finished. It still is amazing to picture the two twin towers in this now open space under construction. It's sad visiting and people were all around taking photos and reading memorials.

After Ground Zero we made our way to Battery Park to look out on the Hudson River and to see the Statue of Liberty. Then we walked to Wall Street to check out the New York Stock Exchange and I ran into a Steakhouse called Nebraska! I had to get a photo!

We decided to end the day by walking through the South Street Sea Port - Pier 17 to rest and have a couple drinks and then we headed to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It had been a long day and I know that Casey & Matt where done walking and were ready to rest their legs and get in some air conditioning. So we headed back home, ordered some pizza and got ready to go out for the night!

Philip and I have been trying to find a country bar (which is difficult to find in NYC) but we found one called Rodeo Bar, where they have live bands every night and never a cover, so we thought we would check it out. It was pretty cool. Peanuts were on the floor, there was a horse trailer for a bar, and a great live band with a racoon tail hanging from the stand-up base. It was a good time and I think us Midwesterners felt more at home. Here's a photo with some of Philip's work friends at the Rodeo Bar.

Labor Day Weekend - Matt & Casey Visit

I know that it has been awhile since I have blogged, but we've had a pretty busy couple weeks. It started with Labor Day weekend when Philip's two best friends he grew up with and lived with in Chicago, Matt & Casey, visited us for the 3-day weekend. Neither of them have been to New York so we wanted to show them a variety of attractions - and now we have a pretty good "visitor tour guide" down. Photo on right is of Casey, Matt & Philip from Friday night.

Matt & Casey came on Friday and Philip got off work early to meet them at the apartment. I was actually temping and couldn't get off until after 5pm. The boys decided to check out Tavern on the Green in Central Park and then went to Happy Hour at this small BBQ place near our place called Smokin Q. I met them there as they were leaving and we decided to check out another pub near us called Becky's. That night we went to one of our favorite 80's bar - The Joshua Tree - for some awesome 80's music videos and dancing! It was a good time. Before we went home, we all had to get a slice of pizza at my favorite pizza place right across the street from our apartment - they even feature healthy, low-fat, wheat pizza - if that's possible. :)